There are fears flooding such as in WA's wheat belt could intermingle GM, non-GM and organic crops.

ABC News

One of Western Australia's peak industry bodies says the organic industry in Australia needs to change its zero tolerance standard to the presence of genetically modified (GM) organisms in organic crops.

WA Farmers grains section president Duncan Young said the organic industry in Australia should look to GM tolerance standards in other countries.

"I think the real issue is the fact that the organic industry needs to re-evaluate their zero status for GM and probably take a leaf out of the book of other countries around the world with their organic industries," he said.

"I'll use the example of Canada where they have a tolerance, and organic farmers and conventional farmers quite happily farm side by side. There doesn't seem to be any issues.

"There are very few places around the world that have zero (tolerance) when you're talking about other things in a crop, whether it's barley in wheat or wheat in barley or canola in wheat or anything else, there is always a level there, no zeros.

"If they are zeros they're normally to do with something that will harm a human and that will normally be for a smut or a mould or something like that where it will actually cause harm to a human."

Asia's demand for zero tolerance

National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) general manager Mark Anderson disagreed and argued the issue is not about Australia's standards, but what is expected around the world.

He said Canada is not a good example given it's such a small market for Australia.

"If you look at the big markets, the growing markets for Australia (such as) Asia — in particular China, Korea, Japan — they all have no tolerance for GM in their organic standards and there are very few places in the world where is there is any," he said.

But Duncan Young said zero tolerance is not achievable moving forward and a small amount of GM needs to be tolerated.

"So long as it's not zero there won't be a problem. You could have half of 0.9 (per cent tolerance) and it still wouldn't be an issue for a farmer that wants to grow a crop," he said.

"You've got to remember that these crops are a legal crop to grow in this country, we're not talking about illegal crops here. You can legally grow GM canola in this country and this state."

Separating non-GM from organic

From an organic perspective, Mark Anderson from NASAA said even having an adventitious tolerance of 0.9 per cent or less does not mean you are allowed to have known contamination of your product or your paddock.

He argued that this is not just about organics but involves the non-GM industry as a whole.

"People don't want GM product, the market is telling us that, and if we want to find a place in that market internationally somehow as a whole community we have to work out how we're going to deal with this kind of contamination."

There are arguments from farmers and organic producers alike that current standards pit neighbours against each other, something Mark Anderson concedes, but said needs a solution before contamination can occur.

While he is not sure what the solution is long term, non-GM farmers were here first.

"GM is the thing that's come and changed the landscape and its the contamination by GM that's reducing the price people can get for their product," he said.

He suggested that organic growers in WA need to look at their properties carefully following the floods and contact NASAA to have correct testing done to see if there are any issues.

"Before anyone gets too concerned about it, or starts taking anyone to court, we need to find out if there's a problem in the first place," he said.

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